Brief

For this project, we worked with the Korea Tourism Organization to suggest a service that can enhance the travel and airport experience of people visiting Korea.

What is Knock?

Knock is a service which users can use within the airport and during flights. The aim of this service decrease the perception of waiting time by providing them with useful, up to date information about their destination and connecting them with similar travelers and locals. Since users usually can’t use wifi during flights, they can continue using the service by using the personal flight entertainment screens.

Background

According to the Korea Tourism Organization, as traveling to other countries became more accessible to many people, usage of airports and airplanes are increasing every year. With this change, more and more airports are trying to enhance the experience of the travelers by making accommodations and providing convenient services. However, there are still many problems that are not being addressed. As our team looked into the overall experience of people in the airport by visiting Incheon International Airport in Korea, we were able to learn that one of the most important factors that created negative emotion to the users was the waiting time. Our team decided to focus on, not reducing the time itself, but on reducing the perception of waiting time by creating a service that the travelers can use to pass the time without feeling bored.

Role

Prototyping, UI design, video making.

Group Work

Research, brainstorming, UX design

Duration

Six weeks with a team of four (two designers)

Description

Research Process

Research and Synthesis

(1) Scope of Research

Our project started with the question of how can we change the meaningless waiting time occurring in airports into something more meaningful and productive. As we were looking into the experience of people in airports, we realized that the waiting time occurring in airports and airplanes have similar characteristics. For both situations, people have limited options when trying to pass the time. Therefore, we broadened the scope of our service by including the waiting time occurring in airplanes.

(2) Paper Research

Our team conducted paper research by reading various research discussing people’s perception time, the relationship between delays and service satisfaction and different efforts trying to decrease the negative emotions created by waiting time. From paper research, we learned that using different methods that decrease people’s perceptions of time, other than changing the physical environment or improving the service itself, can be very effective in enhancing the overall experience. For example, informing the customers of the approximate waiting time can decrease negative emotion.

(3) Field Research

With our understanding of people and waiting time, we conducted a field research by using various design research methods such as fly-on-the-wall, online survey, and 1 on 1 interviews. Through user research, we learned that,

(1) The most common activity that the people in the airport engage in is finding information for their travel.
(2) While in airplanes, people felt that they were not well-informed of the waiting time between in-flight services, like getting snacks and meals.
(3) Travelers’ biggest inconvenience of traveling in Korea was the lack of credible local information.

Affinity Diagram

Based on learnings from research, we created an affinity diagram to elicit the core functions of our service. The ideas and data were sorted into the category of in-airport and in-flight because of the devices that can be used in the airport and on the airplane flight are significantly different. After sorting into categories, we made a subcategory based on the needs of the travelers and chose three core functions to address each of these needs. With these core functions, we brainstormed detailed features that go into each category.

(Inflight Wifi was not accessible at the time of the research)

Concept

The concept of our service was to provide credible information about the destination seamlessly, using mobile devices in the airport and personal in-flight screens on the airplane.

The three core functions we developed through affinity diagram were

(1) providing a service that can help them find information and plan for travel(2) informing the travelers with the overall schedule and service time during flights
(3) providing travel contents that are entertaining and useful.

For the first function, we designed four detailed features: Theme, Categories, Chat, and Route. To help travelers access to credible information about the destination and assist them with planning ahead for traveling, travelers are able to browse through information provided by the Korean government in Themes and Categories. They can save places to the Route menu, so they can see these locations on the same screen. Also, they are able to chat with people who have already visited or on their way to Korea.

The second and third function are focused on the contents that are provided to the users during flights.

Through using their passport number and flight number, they can access the same information in the airport and during flights using personal in-flight screens.

Low fidelity Prototype

Based on our concept, we created a low-fidelity prototype to perform user testing. Through user testing, we wanted to test two things.

1. The usability and the structure of the service.
2. The content of the service.

Using Flinto, we gave the users the application and asked them to find certain information. While they were doing their task, we observed them and recorded where they were getting confused. Based on this observation we organized all of the information that is created by the user in the Profile section. The information provided to the user were organized on the first screen they see when after login.

For the content, being able to browse information during flights didn’t seem interesting the users. So we concluded that we need to add more entertaining elements to the service.

Service Flow

Before diving into designing our service, we decided to create a context where we can apply our service. We chose the situation where the traveler is leaving from London, UK to Incheon, Seoul because negative emotion increases when the waiting time in longer. Based on the actual flight time and service schedule of the flight, we designed the overall service flow and the prototype.

Main Screen (Left : APP | Right : Personal Screen Display)

(1) Assisting Planning for Travel

Through research, we found out that, making use of waiting time in a more productive and meaningful way, reduces the perception of time. Therefore, designed a travel assistance application, in which the users can find credible information. Using the server on airplanes, the mobile application can be synced to the user’s in-flight personal screen so that they can access our service seamlessly. We designed the UI for each device separately considering the characteristics of each device but applied the same design guideline to give uniformity.

During waiting time, users can use our service to search for locations they want to visit in Themes and Categories. They can also save locations to the Route menu for reference during travel.

Main Screen (Left : APP | Right : Personal Screen Display)

Main Screen (Left : APP | Right : Personal Screen Display)

(2) Informing Waiting Time

When people are informed with the overall waiting time, the perception of time also decreases. This is an important factor for addressing problems related to waiting time that occurs during flights. Therefore, using the service schedule based on London-Incheon flight, we designed a left aligned timeline for the personal screen display. Using this timeline, we can provide users with information related to the context.

Provide contents related to the service schedule during flights

(3) Providing Useful and Entertaining Contents

To help people focus on the contents that are provided through our service, we implemented interactive activities that users can engage in.

Pop-up Quiz

Pop-up quizzes are given at certain time intervals during the flight. The questions are related to the destination, which is Korea for our scenario. They are given a certain amount of time to solve the problem and when they get the questions right, rewards are given.

Chat with locals on board

Users can also view the status of other users on board. The status shows if the person is also a traveler or a local. Through this feature, travelers can easily get information directly from a local. This function can be turned on/off, depending on the users’ needs.

Service Manual

Final Prototype

(1) Mobile Application Main Pages

(2) Personal In-flight Screen

Learnings and Limitations

Through this project, I learned that desk and paper research can be as useful as conducting a field research. While deciding on the entertaining elements that need to be implemented in the service, our team wasn’t sure where to start. Through case research and paper research, we were able to brainstorm several ideas and test it to the users to see what works the best.

Limitation of this project was that we weren’t able to test it in a real environment due to security issues.